KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

Anyone who has ever served in Afghanistan has known about this. I’ve covered it before, specifically Army Special Forces soldiers Captain Dan Quinn and Sgt. Charles Martland. Sofrep’s own SF author Jeffrey Forker covered this issue very well in a recent article, laying out the details with a great article that showed calmness, logic and restraint about the issue.

Since he did that so well, I’m going to go in a, uh, SLIGHTLY different direction: Reading this article made me sick. So I’m going to say some things now.

First, my small editorial note: Anyone who has read my columns knows that I’m not above a well-placed bit of profanity, when appropriate and/or hilarious. And everyone also knows that I mock the “trigger warning” culture constantly. But: fair warning, this is going to contain some language that you may not be comfortable with. I am not doing this to be gratuitous. I am doing it because I feel the terms, “rape” and “sexual assault” are too vanilla. They don’t begin to cover the horror of what this actually is, I’m trying to paint a picture, and I am angry.

Listen: I don’t want to hear about “our Afghan partners” and “necessary evil” bullshit. I don’t want to hear the justification from some of the Army guys that they have to sometimes turn a blind eye to bad behavior from the men they’re training. I don’t want to hear your excuse for accomplishing some nation-building pipe dream or whatever you think you’re doing in that godforsaken place for the last 15 years.

If there is a line, if there is a line that the U.S. military will not cross in accomplishing whatever BS snipe-hunting game they’re going for, THIS IS THE LINE. Allowing child rape on YOUR BASE is the line. And if there was EVER a order that a commander should disobey, it’s letting Afghan savages rape little boys on an American base.

Every single United States military commander who has any kind of say in this should be ashamed of themselves. Let me tell you something: You’re an embarrassment. If there was EVER a order that a commander should disobey, it’s letting Afghan savages fuck little boys on an American base. If you can’t do that, than you are USELESS. You might as well be guiding these sub-human FILTH right to these boys.

You think it’s hard to take a stand like that? You think it’s hard putting your career on the line? Captain Quinn and Sgt. Martland probably thought it was pretty hard losing their careers and paychecks. It’s a lot harder being a ten year old boy and being passed around a mud hut so old men can tear your body apart and leave you with a lifetime of physical and mental scars.

Oh, and as for the White House, who can’t wait to put on gay light shows and talk about the oppressed Muslims (more on that later)? Surely, President Obama would appear and angrily condemn this:

“For the rules of engagement and the kind of structure that’s in place to guide the relationship between the United States and Afghan members of the military, I’d refer you to the Department of Defense for that,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

There you go. He won’t even comment. HE KNOWS NOTHING. Finally, we’ve found a sodomy-related story that the President isn’t interested in. Instead, we get shithead Josh Earnest blathering nonsense from the podium and hope the media picks another topic. If you watch the video, he doesn’t even sound upset. We’ve come a long way from, “The buck stops here,” haven’t we?

So where does the buck stop? Who is in charge? The President just threw the Pentagon under the bus, so which general is putting up with this? If I’m a 4 star general, and the White House is telling me that I have no choice but to go along with child rape, I quit that day.I mean, learn how to play the freaking modern media game. I’ve never understood U.S. Generals, who have easily reached retirement age, being all meek and playing the good soldier by remaining silent.

If that was me being fired for refusing to put up with child anal rape, I send a message to every single media outlet I can think of. I hold a press conference live on CNN and Fox, standing right in front of the White House, and I explain, in incredibly GRAPHIC detail, what I have been ordered to allow happen on American military bases overseas. I name names. I point fingers. What are the names of those officers who who told Lance Corporal Buckley to look the other way? Who was their boss? Does General Lloyd Austin, CENTCOM commander, have anything to say about this?

And these so called military leaders; these cowards who go along, to get along? How they can even put on the uniform of the U.S. Military and look at themselves in the mirror is shocking to me. They aren’t leaders. They don’t deserve the uniform. They are men without chests. What, you think the old, “I was only following orders,” is acceptable? If you can’t even vigorously defend these kids, then just pack up everything and get the hell out of there.

And if there was a situation, which I can’t imagine, where you absolutely HAD to have these animals on your side? Like, literally a child raper who knows where the suitcase nuke is? And one of your officers couldn’t take it anymore and knocked the filth down? Fine, quietly remove him from the area and replace him with someone who can be more necessarily ruthless. But to run that officer out of the military? To ruin his life with Non Judicial Punishment (NJP) and discharges? Are they insane?

I’m so mad right now, I can barely type this out. I am angry beyond words at these GUTLESS “men” who call themselves American military officers. This is so foul. This is a crime against humanity.

Howard started his career in 2007 with the Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. His first assignment was in the New York Field Office (NYFO) where he conducted multiple investigations and protective details. In 2009 he was then sent to the security office at the U.S. Embassy of Baghdad, Iraq. After a year in Baghdad he was posted in Tel Aviv, Israel where we met. Once completing that tour Howard and Alejandra were assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan before returning to the U.S. Before he became a Diplomatic Security Special Agent for the U.S. Embassies around the world. Howard also served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 4 years, receiving an honorable discharge as a Sergeant of Marines.

In 2014 we were shocked that at the age of 34, Howard was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.

I knew Howard when we were both working in Bagdad. You know, I consider myself fairly amusing, but this guy made me look like I had the personality of a shoe. I’ve never met such a quick-witted, hilarious individual working for the Feds. Usually they’ve either had a brain-ectomy, or have had their souls beaten down by the relentless idiocy they’ve had to put up with.

Howard was great. He made me laugh like an idiot on numerous occasions. I was with him when we were doing some election monitoring for the UN years ago, in some godforsaken armpit of Iraq. We were putting our kits on to get ready to go out in the town, when KABLAMMMMMMO!! Huge IED goes off in the distance.

Me: (nervous laughter) Huh. Well, at least they got it out of the way before we went out there. Maybe that was just a practice bomb?

Two Minutes Later: KABLAMMMMMMO!! Second IED goes off. Equally huge.

Me: Shit.

Yeah, it was stressful. But Howie made it good just by being assured, in control, and hilarious. I haven’t talked to him in a couple years, but when you go through times like that, you become brothers for life, regardless of how often you see each other.

Norfolk, Va. – One of two Navy Sailors accused in a Norfolk bank break-in was in court Friday morning.

According to Norfolk Police, at 4:30 a.m. that morning, they were called to the Heritage Bank on Granby Street for a commercial burglary. When they arrived they found Samuel Bland, 23, of Norfolk, and Alex Ronne, 22, of Torrance, Ca. inside the bank, passed out.

Court records say both are assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and have been in the Navy for two years. It’s still unknown what punishments they will face, if any, by the Navy.

Police say alcohol was a factor in the break-in.

NO. WAY.

People who work across the street from the bank say they arrived to work early Tuesday morning to see the two men being arrested by police. They say that one of the men was escorted out wearing only trash bags. Police confirm that one of the men defecated on the bank floor before police arrived.

COME ON, GUY. What the hell ever happened to having some drinks and going to the club to pick up women?

On Friday night’s episode of “Real Time,” host Bill Maher continued to criticize liberal “ninnies” who think 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed should be lionized for what the comedian characterized as “taking the back off something.”

Maher played a YouTube clip of someone opening up an alarm clock and placing it in a pencil case, and claimed that it looked both exactly like what Ahmed brought with him to school and exactly like a bomb. “This is like pouring milk on a bowl of Cheerios and claiming you invented cereal,” Maher said.

I love me some Bill Maher. I disagree with him a lot, but he’s on of the few people on TV who says anything interesting. And I’m fascinated by this episode, with all of it’s storylines and what it says about the modern media culture in which we live.

To be clear: I am NOT saying that this was a deliberate hoax. (yet.) I am saying that, I feel a lot of people jumped immediately to the desired conclusion, and that THOSE people are looking more and more stupid every day. It’s not really the kid I’m irritated with (yet,) it’s all of these dopes that keep egging him on like he’s the second coming of Nikola Tesla.

Something stinks about this story. I can’t yet put my finger on it, but I’ve been around long enough to know that that when something SEEMS wrong, it usually turns out that there’s a lot more than meets the eye going on. It’s all too pat; too cute: Poor Muslim kid brings homemade clock to school, racist police and school administrators freak out, President of the United States starts stupidly sticking his nose in… and profit!!!

Except now we know that some of this isn’t adding up.

The clock itself, for starters. He didn’t really BUILD anything. Yes, I know a 14 year old might talk about “inventing” something. He took an existing clock out of a case and put it into another one. I can see a young kid initially talking like that. Not really a 14 year old; like a five year old. But after multiple people pointing out that it isn’t anything new, he’s still going on TV with idiot moron hosts and talking about his “invention that he built.” You really think an electronics genius would talk this way, DAYS after the event happened?

So he goes to school, and shows it to not one, not two, but six different teachers. The first one told him, “cool, now put it away,” and then he keeps going around to different teachers until the last one reacted by calling the principle? Not to mention, he plugs it into a wall so it goes off during class? That doesn’t make sense.

Now the teachers are getting ridiculed for reporting the device to the authorities. That is, until everyone saw a picture of said device. It’s fun to rag on the teachers after the fact, but hell, up until approximately April 15th, 2013, I bet most people would have ridiculed being worried about a pressure cooker with a wire sticking out of it. That’s not so funny anymore, is it?

And while Google, MIT, Microsoft, the president where falling all over themselves talking about this genius inventor, there’s been absolutely no indication from the school that he was this whiz-bang inventor science geek. I don’t even know what the kid’s grades are, much less that he’s some kind of tinkering genius, and he’s getting scholarship offers from some of the most prestigious schools in the country? Look at what he told Mark Cuban:

“He told me, ‘Ive been getting all these offers. I’m not going back to MacArthur. I’m going to pick which school I want to go to because everyone’s offering me scholarships.’ The kid came out way ahead.”

Mmmm-Hmmm. Does that sound like a kid who has been through a racial hell? This was with his sister in the background telling him what to say, by the way. Also weird.

Then there’s the fact that his father is some kind of militant Islamic nutcase. As they’ve been running this grift, they’ve accused the police of hurling slurs against Islam, mistreating their son, and generally damning anyone involved as being insane racists. And yet they refuse to sign a release so the police can release audio and video of the entire thing. Why is that?

Did you know Google had a science fair? The winner, Olivia Hallisley, invented a rapid new way to detect for Ebola. Pretty goddamn impressive. A lot more impressive than unscrewing a clock case and putting the guts into another case. Unfortunately for Olivia, she’s merely an icky white American. (gross.) So who was the star of the show?

Now he’s a celebrity. Everything’s a reality television show now.

I keep telling people, when the latest OUTRAGE!!! hits the internet: give it a goddamn minute. Because, much like Michael Brown, the Balloon Boy, and the many, many, MANY hate crimes that turned out not to be so hate-crime-y, sometimes there’s a lot more to the story than meets the eye. And then you look like all of the Cecil the Freaking Lion MORONS. Looking side-eye at you, Obama.

If I had to offer my opinion, I think this probably started just how the family said. And then, due to the grifter father’s media savvy and knowing what he does about the liberal American press LOVING stories about the Wronged Minority Getting Justice, he decided that he was gonna get paid. Hell, I almost admire the guy. Him and his long, flowing robes.

Ok, so I’m not really the religious type, although I have respect for some aspects of religion. I see some of the good things that they’ve done, like Catholic hospitals and schools, etc. But the fact that we shut down our cities and show such DEFERENCE to these guys makes me scratch my head. And who is paying for all of this, anyway?

I’m not talking about Catholicism per se. I’m talking about the Vatican; the bureaucracy of the Catholic church, which for decades, if not centuries, has been a cesspool of corruption and child-rape cover-ups. And yet people wait in the hot sun to scream after the pope like he’s Elvis and watch obviously-contrived propaganda? Come on. (Attention media morons: 5 year old girls do not use words like “galvanizing.” DERRRRR.)

But maybe he’s a super-compelling speaker, filled with righteous fire and brimstone, delivering his uplifting message in a searing, emotional, LOFTY rhetoric that lifts our souls; that transcends time and space; that fills us with the awe of the holy spirit!:

HOLY SHIT. I lapsed into a coma at like thirty seconds. I know English isn’t his first language, but that was godawful.

Mama BK and I actually had a talk about this Saturday morning. She’s Irish Catholic, and felt like I was being too hard on him. After all, he’s The Cool Pope! And briefly, I actually started second-guessing myself (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) into thinking perhaps I was being too judge-y.

And then I remembered that one of his honored guests accompanying him as he travels around the United States was former Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney. Yes, that Roger Mahoney. Cardinal Roger, “It was only child rape,” Mahoney.

Mrs Merkel’s offer last month to accept all refugees from war-ravaged Syria opened the floodgates. More than a million migrants are expected this year alone, the bulk of them far from genuine asylum seekers. There is now deepening disquiet in this Christian country, dotted with churches, that it is being overwhelmed by people of a different religion and culture…

…Locals in Giessen are appalled by the rape allegations. But many are also increasingly worried about the effect of the migrants — some 6,000 Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Kurds, Eritreans and others are housed in the camp, which was expanded last year — on their everyday lives.Some complain that the migrants have taken over the town, which is famous for its botanical gardens and dotted with pretty boutiques and flower shops. You cannot miss the new arrivals, wandering the streets in large groups…

In other parts of the country, Germans are being told to adapt their lifestyles when migrants arrive.

Police in the Bavarian town of Mering, where a 16-year-old girl was reportedly raped this month, have warned parents not to allow their children outside unaccompanied.

Girls and women have been told not to walk home alone from the railway station because it is near a migrant centre where the rapist may live.

At Pocking, another well-kept Bavarian town, the headmaster of the grammar school wrote to parents telling them not to let their daughters wear skimpy clothing. This was to avoid ‘misunderstandings’ with 200 migrants who were put up in the school’s gymnasium over the summer, before being moved on this month.

The letter to parents said the migrants were ‘mainly Muslim, and speak Arabic. They have their own culture. Because our school is directly next to where they are staying, modest clothing should be warn… revealing tops or blouses, short skirts or miniskirts could lead to misunderstandings.’

Astonishingly, police kept silent about the rape, which took place in June. Only this month, after a local newspaper revealed that it had happened — and claimed German authorities are not ‘going public’ about crimes involving migrants because they don’t want to ‘give legitimacy’ to critics of mass migration — did they confirm it had taken place.

The area’s police chief, Bernd Flake, insists the official silence was meant to protect the rape victim. But he adds: ‘We will continue this policy (of not informing the public) whenever crimes are committed in migrant facilities.’

Enjoy it, Germany. And this is just the beginning. All because your childless liberal fool of a Prime Minister, Angela Merkel, is gunning for fawning headlines and Nobel Peace prize. You’re done. Just wait until your new neighbors get settled in and start organizing.

Germany’s epitaph could be summed up in one headline: “R.I.P. Germany: We Didn’t Want Mean Things Said About Us On Twitter.”

A combat patch worn by U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq on the mission against Islamic State is drawing flak from service members and veterans who say the patch — with its palm wreath, stars and crossed scimitars — looks like something the enemy would wear.

The patch isn’t new. Soldiers serving in Operation Inherent Resolve have been sewing it onto their uniforms since April, shortly after the Army authorized it. There is also a medal version for wear on the Army Service Uniform, service spokesman Wayne Hall said on Thursday.

Army Secretary John McHugh approved the patch on March 23 and the service announced it in a message to troops four days later.

But a story on the patch posted on Army Times’ Facebook page has drawn a long string of criticism from readers who say the design makes it look more like a unit patch of a Middle Eastern military — or even something ISIS would wear…

…“Will these be issued to Iraqi troops so they can desert again and leave these patches for ISIS?” asked Army veteran Michael Daunais, a reference to instances in which Iraqi troops have gone over to the jihadists rather than fight them.

The Pentagon’s embattled F-35 jet fighter program received some much-needed good press last week when a group of U.S. Air Force F-35 pilots heaped praise upon the aircraft. This week those remarks—made at an event showcasing the fighter aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base—appear somewhat less genuine.

An eight-page internal Air Force memo marked “not for public release” is nonetheless making the public rounds this week, potentially erasing any P.R. bump last week’s showcase may have imparted on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Simply titled “Public Affairs Guidance,” the document details how airmen should “articulate the capabilities of the aircraft and (explain why we need the F-35)” to members of the news media, lawmakers, and other “opinion leaders”.

Much of the memo consists of talking points and suggested answers to common questions and critiques, including criticisms that the program is consistently behind schedule, can’t perform critical missions, and overly reliant on unproven technologies.

Navy Gunner’s Mate Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra dodged bullets and shore battery fire at D-Day well before he began his Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees.

Berra was grazed on the shoulder by fire off the coast of France on what he called a “rocketboat,” but he declined a Purple Heart. He thought his mother back in St. Louis might get upset if she found out.

President Obama noted Berra’s military service in mourning the passing of the iconic catcher for all seasons who died Tuesday night in New Jersey at age 90.

DRUMMOND ISLAND, Mich. (AP) — State police say two federal agents were helping search for a missing member of the U.S. Marines when they exchanged gunfire with him on northern Michigan’s Drummond Island.

Hours later Thursday, state police found 38-year-old Aaron Andrew Furness of Woodbridge, Virginia, dead inside a remote cabin. Police say Friday the cause is under investigation.

Police say Furness was reported missing Wednesday and was believed to be in the area. Around 2:30 a.m., agents from U.S. Border Patrol discovered footprints and tracked them to a cabin. They were shot at and took cover while returning gunfire.

Police say Furness retreated into the cabin and was found dead inside.

The man traveled to Bakersfield early Sunday in the belief he’d be spending time with the woman he loved.

But when he arrived at her south Bakersfield residence, three men wearing hockey masks punched, kicked and choked him to the point of passing out, according to police documents. The woman listened to the beating from a back bedroom.

The documents say the defendants — including Sergio Medina, the woman’s husband — are infantrymen in the U.S. Marine Corps. Medina, 20, Rodrigo Sanchez, 19, and Leonardo Ortiz, 19, have pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping with bodily injury and robbery, and are being held on $500,000 bail.

The victim was interviewed by police Sunday morning. He said he had arrived in the 2800 block of Lee Drive after receiving a Snapchat message from Diana Reyes, whom he met in 2012 and with whom he’d once been romantically involved…

…Reyes told investigators that Medina told her to stay in a back bedroom shortly before the victim arrived, the documents say. She said she heard the men pummeling the victim.

Reyes said she and the victim never had sex, but she once kissed him while her husband was on deployment, the documents say. She also told detectives her husband knows her Snapchat password.

A Physical Training Instructor for the Armed Forces has started a parliamentary petition asking for all soldiers to be allowed to grow beards and not “to have to parade clean shaven.”

Ben Houghton-Clarke’s submission asks: “To allow soldiers who serve in the British Army to wear neat/trimmed facial hair.”

If the petition gains 10,000 signatures the government must issue an official response. Should the number reach 100,000 signatures then the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.

Mr Houghton-Clarke, who has competed for the British Army team in Triathlon events, argues that the growing of facial hair “hugely increases morale and contributes to operational effectiveness through psychological means.”

In January this year Forces.tv featured the one British Army rank that is allowed to parade not only with a full beard but also wielding an axe and sporting a leather apron.

Assault Pioneer is one of the few trades within the British Army that are permitted to have beards

Pioneer Sergeants have existed since the 1700s when every British Infantry company had one ‘pioneer’ who would march in front of the regiment.

It was also the Pioneer Sergeant’s duty to kill horses that had been wounded in battle.

Um, why was I not made aware of the Assault Pioneer position? That is EPIC.